2 × 240 or 1 × 480 GB SSD?

[TheWhiteOne]

*EDIT: This is not RAID 240s versus single 480, it's about 2 seperate 240s verus one 480.*

As the title says, I'm deciding between 2 × 240GB or 1 × 480GB SSD. The SSD itself is Crucial M500.

 

Two 240GB would cost me the same (in fact, 4 cents less) as one 480GB SSD (240GB: 100€, 480GB: 200€).

 

So I'm wondering whether should I just take two 240s or one 480. I'm even considering just one 240. What are the pros and cons of both configurations?

*My motherboard has only SATA2, so sequentail performance will not be up to spec (I don't really care for sequential anyway).*
*I have enough SATA ports for HDD and 2 SSDs*

[helping]

One 480.

 

The cons of RAID 0 SSDs outweigh the benefits

[Izaya Orihara]

480. 

[ZetZet]

2x240 in RAID1  :lol:

[KingLich]

Seems like a consensus towards the 480 is forming, so I'll play some devil's advocate here.

 

I have 2x256 RAID0 setup on my dev laptop and it is wicked fast for the storage intensive things I throw at it. I'm currently running a big complicated Oracle database on it and it outperforms pretty much anything I've seen, not to mention the almost instant startup for most software. Benchmarks are around the 1GB/s mark. It's also noticeably faster than my single SSD desktop in normal Windows usage, though not by a huge margin - just enough to make me consider RAID-ing it up on that PC as well.

 

I have not had any problems with the setup yet (been torturing it for 6 months now).

 

The biggest con for the RAID that I see is that you have 2 points of failure, but SSDs are pretty robust nowadays.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

One 480.

 

The cons of RAID 0 SSDs outweigh the benefits

what cons?

 

The only one I see is the higher chance of losing data, but regular backups would solve that.

[Hotnuggets]

As the title says, I'm deciding between 2 × 240GB or 1 × 480GB SSD. The SSD itself is Crucial M500.

 

Two 240GB would cost me the same (in fact, 4 cents less) as one 480GB SSD (240GB: 100€, 480GB: 200€).

 

So I'm wondering whether should I just take two 240s or one 480. I'm even considering just one 240. What are the pros and cons of both configurations?

*My motherboard has only SATA2, so sequentail performance will not be up to spec (I don't really care for sequential anyway).*

*I have enough SATA ports for HDD and 2 SSDs*

I say either one 240gb ssd, or 2 240s in a raid 1 config for added saftey

[Lord Pantaloons]

Seems like a consensus towards the 480 is forming, so I'll play some devil's advocate here.

 

I have 2x256 RAID0 setup on my dev laptop and it is wicked fast for the storage intensive things I throw at it. I'm currently running a big complicated Oracle database on it and it outperforms pretty much anything I've seen, not to mention the almost instant startup for most software. Benchmarks are around the 1GB/s mark. It's also noticeably faster than my single SSD desktop in normal Windows usage, though not by a huge margin - just enough to make me consider RAID-ing it up on that PC as well.

 

I have not had any problems with the setup yet (been torturing it for 6 months now).

 

The biggest con for the RAID that I see is that you have 2 points of failure, but SSDs are pretty robust nowadays.

It's not only drive failure that you have to worry about, you also have to consider array desync if something catastrophic happens to your system. SSD's are lightning fast these days so raid 0 is really unnecessary.

[KingLich]

It's not only drive failure that you have to worry about, you also have to consider array desync if something catastrophic happens to your system. SSD's are lightning fast these days so raid 0 is really unnecessary.

 

You say unnecessary, but I'd be hard-pressed to go back to a single SSD for my work application. It really makes a difference there. I'm not saying that it would for OP, but I thought I'd expose that side of it as well.

[helping]

what cons?

 

The only one I see is the higher chance of losing data, but regular backups would solve that.

The increased chance of failure, work done to accommodate for that, and the loss of storage due to redundancy (depending on how you go about backing up, I wouldn't know, I don't have any) is usually not worth it unless you need absolute maximum possible performance. 

 

In most situations, the gains of a RAID 0 array compared to a single SSD aren't really significant enough to care about or notice in most situations. Especially considering OP's hardware. 

 

I didn't notice before, but the situation may be different with RAID 0 compared to a single drive on SATA 2. How well the motherboard's RAID controller handles the array is also a variable to take into consideration. 

 

Unless there is someone else with a similar setup, or reliable benchmarks and information pertinent to OP's motherboard, I would stay with single drives for simplicity, taking into consideration the lost potential from the array probably won't have that big of an impact when looking at the rest of the components. 

 

that's my opinion, take it as such. 

[TheWhiteOne]

*I'm not talking about RAID, it's about two seperate 240s versus 1 480.*

[TheProfosist]

Which ssd(s) cause that will kjnda matter a bit

[KingLich]

*I'm not talking about RAID, it's about two seperate 240s versus 1 480.*

 

In that case I retract my suggestion and get on board with the one 480. Unless there is a sale on 240s I don't see the point in having 2 drives.

[TheWhiteOne]

Which ssd(s) cause that will kjnda matter a bit

It is in the first post, M500.

[TheProfosist]

In that case I retract my suggestion and get on board with the one 480. Unless there is a sale on 240s I don't see the point in having 2 drives.

nice thing about having two drives si for two different things doing one doesnt restrict the other

It is in the first post, M500.

Think about the M550 at all as they have better performance are a bit updated.

[TheWhiteOne]

nice thing about having two drives si for two different things doing one doesnt restrict the otherThink about the M550 at all as they have better performance are a bit updated.

They are not yet availible here

[TheProfosist]

They are not yet availible here

ah, maybe wait if possible?

Also check out this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-m500-1tb-ssd,3551-7.html I would get the 480gb unless yo uwould really benefit from two separate drives as the 480gb is quicker.